


his protégée or something

by nowrunalong



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Pre-Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 08:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13095927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowrunalong/pseuds/nowrunalong
Summary: “Wolfram and Hart,” Harmony says, picking up the phone and pinning it to her ear with her shoulder as she fiddles with a chain of paperclips. She fixes a bright smile on her face that no one will see, because it’s good manners. “Angel’s office.”





	his protégée or something

“Wolfram and Hart,” Harmony says, picking up the phone and pinning it to her ear with her shoulder as she fiddles with a chain of paperclips. She fixes a bright smile on her face that no one will see, because it’s good manners. “Angel’s office.”

“Uh, hi,” says the voice at the other end. “Can I talk to him? Angel?”

“Well, he’s in a meeting right now,” Harmony says. “It’s super important. I can take a message? I’ll make sure he gets it.”

“I was just—nah. You know what—this was stupid. I’ll just—”

“It’s no big deal, really! I can tell him you called. It’s my job.”

The girl at the other end takes a deep breath, uncertain. “Yeah—alright,” she says. “Can you, uh—tell him Faith called.”

“Oh my God! Faith? Like, Levine or something, right?”

“Lehane.”

“Oh. Right. Anyway, Angel like, loves you. You’re totally his protégée or something!”

“Yeah,” Faith says insincerely. “I’m all that.”

“No—really! I wish I were more like you,” Harmony says. She sets down the purple gel pen she’d picked up and resumes unhooking paperclips. Some hooligan had twisted them all together—totally unusable. “I mean, you went totally evil! And then,” Harmony sighs, “followed the path of redemption, and now people _like_ you again.”

“It’s kinda more complicated than—” Faith stops, tries again. “Angel talks about me that much?”

“Well, once or twice,” Harmony shrugs. “But I have a good memory.”

“Thing is, I’m having some trouble. With B—uh, Buffy. You’ve probably heard of her.”

“Like, all the time,” Harmony says, and rolls her eyes. “She was never all that in high school. Her and her weird friends, and—anyway, what about her? I thought she was in Italy.”

“Right,” Faith says. “Uh… yeah. Italy.”

“What’s the problem? Can I help? I mean, since Angel’s in a meeting and all.”

Faith huffs out a laugh at the other end. “Don’t you have… I dunno… work stuff to do?”

“Well, my lunch just started, and no one wants to sit with—uh, I’m not busy. What did you want to talk to Angel about?”

“Uhh…”

“I’m a good listener, honest.”

Faith laughs again. “You know what—I got nothing to lose here, so… I guess…” She pauses again, choosing her words, “I guess I wanted to talk to him about… trust. Because B… Buffy. She doesn’t… you know.”

“Doesn’t love you?” Harmony guesses, sympathetic.

“What? She doesn’t _trust_ me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. It’s like she still thinks I’m about to turn on her any second.”

“I get that,” Harmony says, nodding sagely. “I don’t think Angel really trusts me either. I mean, just ‘cause I did turn on him that one time doesn’t mean I can’t change! And I have! Changed, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Faith says, encouraged. “Yeah. I fought by her side last year. Probably saved her ass, and she still thinks—I mean, _what_ do I have to do? Turn up in the wrong place at the wrong time and she assumes—I mean, I was there as a favour to Giles, but does B believe me? Like I’d ever try to…” She trails off.

“That is _so_ relatable,” Harmony says. “I work so hard at this job, but does anyone ever stop to say thank-you? No. Not even Angel, and he’s supposed to be all nice now. Everyone’s all, ‘Harmony, you’re a soulless vampire un-capable of doing good stuff’ even though I’ve been good for like, months now!”

“You’re a vampire?” Faith asks.

Harmony’s face falls. “You’re not gonna get all judgy too, are you? You Slayer people are all the same!”

“Nah,” Faith says. “You do you. Bad Slayers. Good vampires.” At the other end of the line, she shrugs. “Who am I to judge, right?”

“Thanks,” Harmony says. “You know, for what it’s worth—I think that all you can do is… keep trying. ‘Cause eventually, someone will notice. I mean, Angel thinks you’re good, right? And probably some other people. So maybe Buffy’s just kinda slow. I mean, her wardrobe in 1999 was _so_ 1997, so—that’s Buffy for you.”

Faith laughs again, this time more genuinely. “You know—you have a point.”

“Uh-huh,” Harmony agrees.

“Thanks. It’s Harmony, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks,” Faith says again. “This has been real helpful. Sometimes you get real worried about nothing, you know?”

“I know!” Harmony agrees genuinely.

“I should, uh… I should go. But you’ll, uh—well. Tell Angel I said hi.”

“I will.”

Faith hangs up, and Harmony places the phone backs in its holder before writing a little note for Angel (“Faith called!”) in purple.

Smiling to herself, she dots the ‘i’ with a heart.


End file.
